Search results

Maybe my problem is that I've worn glasses for most of my life but I think the rules bring clarity to the situation and what the PCs can do about it. I've been doing TRPGs for about as long as you have and I've found that I can experience a flow state while gaming that is about as close to...

I have never seen players like the ones you are describing and among other TRPGs I have run 5e well into Tier 4. But that's not super relevant. I don't get immersion the way you purport to or the way you describe your goal as being. I get immersion in the story though. I had a whole post in my...

So basically you don't want people treating their tabletop roleplaying game like a game. That's a position I guess. If one chooses to define railroading as in part negating a player's choice I do not see how changing the rules on them or not allowing them to know what the rules are around the...

The narrative in a TRPG is the result of playing the game. It's an output not an input. If you want the players and their characters to be making reasonably considered choices that matter then the rules by which things will be determined also matter. If you choose to ignore the rules or if you...

I disagree that it's the players fault for making presumptions based on the rules of the game they understood themselves to be playing. Even in a TRPG. As a friend of mine put it "The rules aren't exactly how the world works but they represent how the world works." If the players make their...

I don't like line-quoting and I don't normally do it because it can turn into pointless hair-splitting. I'll do it here for clarity. If you're playing D&D you're still using the D&D rules even if you never reference them. This is perhaps an unresolveable difference in our points of view. Tell...

If you're making steak with a pan sauce why are you using bourbon instead of brandy?

There are many ways to learn to cook. I learned a lot from cooking with a friend who improvised almost everything and I learned a lot by reading about cooking and I learned a lot by cooking for myself. As I cook more I have gotten more comfortable working from recipes and riffing on them and...

As it turns out I am the primary cook in my household so perhaps you should check your presumptions more carefully. There are many dishes I can cook without referencing written recipes and there are dishes I can spin from their starting points but neither of those mean the recipes themselves are...

That's usually because they've memorized some recipes. Or because they've internalized principles and are writing the recipe on the fly. It is easy to metaphy between cooking and TRPGs but this is not a particularly strong way in which to do so. GMs operate best with thorough knowledge of the...

You describe that as a bug but there are some people who would think of that as something more like a feature. That opponent is what the DM told you it was and it was as serious a fight as you were promised. The ability to turn such an opponent into a speedbump is also a feature. Some DMs would...

I haven't noticed any complaints at my friend's tables. I don't know exactly what heuristic my friend is using but the levels haven't felt either unearned or unduly delayed. I figure there's room for both your preferences and my friend's approach. Though probably not at the same table.

And if you give something like story-based advancement for the characters' pursuing their own goals and interests the characters will pursue their own goals and interests. That matches the experience at my friend's tables.

We have found that if XP serve as nothing more than a progress meter we'd rather do without. The only XP worth tracking are ones that can be used as some sort of resource in play whether that's just as character-build points or something more in-the-moment like some of the uses for XP in Cypher.

I don't think we are disagreeing more than around the edges. I do not see much conflict between emergent story and pre-established setting facts. You may see more conflict or tension than I do here.

I mean knowing the rules and how the rules interact with and shape the possibilities of the fiction. I'm not particularly interested in being maximally ruthlessly optimized and when I GM I'm not interested in players who insist on or persist in being so. I am having more fun with TRPGs now than...

What about the idea this is a thing one can get better at? I do not have such a gauzy nostalgia for the badly played and run games of my youth.

I mostly agree. They might be worthwhile as things that have happened in the history of a setting as part of why the setting is as it is. They are usually less interesting as things the PCs are supposed to interact with.

There is a difference between playing a game where someone else knows the rules and is teaching you the rules and playing a game where someone else is ignoring the rules intentionally. The experiences are not the same.

Lore can be as important as the people at a given table want it to be. It can the soil from which all the story threads grow or it can be set-dressing. The fiction can be completely constrained by it or built on top of it.